Glossary of Key Terms

A male relative able to verify the identity of a
woman wearing niqab (a face veil).

Mahram

A close male relative whom it would be unacceptable
to marry.

Qiwama

The act of being superior to, a degree above, or
given more physical strength.

Wakil

A
legal proxy.

Wali al-amr

The guardian who acts on behalf of a minor or any
person not qualified to act in legal matters on his or her own behalf.

Wilaya

Guardianship or the appointment of a person to act
on behalf of and in the interest of a person of limited legal capacity.

Summary

I'm
not proud to be a Saudi woman. Why should I be proud of a country that is not
proud of me?

-A Saudi woman (name withheld), Riyadh, December 7, 2006

Fatma
A., a 40-year-old Saudi woman living in Riyadh,
cannot board a plane without written permission from her guardian. As a
divorced woman whose father is deceased, the Saudi authorities have now transferred
her guardianship to her son. "My son is 23 years old and has to come all the
way from the EasternProvince to give me
permission to leave the country," she said. Throughout much of the world, it is
taken for granted that the law empowers both men and women upon reaching the
age of majority (typically 18) to make decisions for themselves. In Saudi Arabia,
however, the government denies more than half of its citizens this fundamental
right.

The
Saudi government has instituted a system whereby every Saudi woman must have a
male guardian, normally a father or husband, who is tasked with making a range
of critical decisions on her behalf. This policy, grounded in the most
restrictive interpretation of an ambiguous Quranic verse, is the most
significant impediment to the realization of women's rights in the kingdom. The
Saudi authorities essentially treat adult women like legal minors who are
entitled to little authority over their own lives and well-being.

Every Saudi woman, regardless of her
economic or social status, is affected by these guardianship policies and the
deprivation of rights that their enforcement entails. Adult women generally must obtain permission from a guardian to work,
travel, study, or marry. Saudi women are similarly denied the right to
make even the most trivial decisions on behalf of their children.

Male
guardianship over adult women also contributes to their risk of confronting
family violence and makes it nearly impossible for survivors of family violence
to avail themselves of protection or redress mechanisms. Social workers,
physicians, and lawyers told Human Rights Watch about the near impossibility of
removing male guardianship of women and children, even from abusive male
guardians.

Even
where permission from a male guardian is not mandatory or even stipulated under
the government's own guidelines, some officials will ask for it, since the
overarching system in place in the kingdom transfers virtually all
decision-making power to a woman's guardian. Officials may ask women for their
guardian's consent even where no law or guideline requires such consent because
current practice assumes women have no power to make their own decisions. For
example, several Saudi women and health professionals told Human Rights Watch
that some hospitals require a guardian's permission to allow women to undergo
certain medical procedures and to be discharged.

While
the government has taken some steps in recent years to limit the absolute power
of guardians, there is little evidence that these measures are actually being
implemented in practice. Saudi women told Human Rights Watch that despite a recent
Ministry of Interior decision allowing women over the age of 45 to travel
without permission, most airport officials continue to ask all women for written
proof that their guardian has allowed them to travel.

Strictly
enforced sex segregation adds to these barriers and hinders a Saudi woman's
ability to participate fully in public life. The Saudi government is willing to
sacrifice a host of fundamental human rights in order to prevent the
intermingling of men and women. In 2005 the absence of separate voting booths
for women was used as an excuse to exclude them from the country's first-ever
municipal elections. For employers, the need to establish separate office
spaces and women's inability to interact with many government agencies without
a male representative provide a significant disincentive to hiring women. In
education, segregation often means that women are relegated to unequal
facilities with inferior academic opportunities. Female students and professors
also told Human Rights Watch that, unlike for their male counterparts, the
gates to their colleges and departments are locked during teaching hours.

The
government's role in establishing and enforcing male guardianship and sex
segregation is often ambiguous. In most manifestations of these practices,
there appear to be no written legal provisions or official decrees explicitly
mandating male guardianship and sex segregation, yet both practices are
essentially universal inside Saudi
Arabia.It is certainly the case
that the government has done little to end these discriminatory practices and
plays a central role in enforcing them. In doing so, the Saudi
government chooses to ignore not only international law but even elements of
the Islamic legal tradition that support equality between men and women. The
religious establishment has consistently paralyzed any efforts to advance women's
rights by applying only the most restrictive provisions of Islamic law while
disregarding more progressive interpretations and the evolving needs of a
modern society.

Senior
government officials consistently told Human Rights Watch that the kingdom needed
to wait for society to accept the notion of women's rights before the
government could reform laws and policies in this area. Yet the Saudi
government's policies toward women, including its complicity in allowing guardianship
and sex segregation to persist and to permeate every aspect of women's lives,
call into question its commitment to the advancement of women's rights. It is clear that Saudi Arabia's segregation and
guardianship policies and practices are fundamentally affecting the ability of
half its population to enjoy even their most basic rights, and are severely
restricting their ability to participate meaningfully in society.

Saudi Arabia's accession to the United Nations Convention
on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women in 2001,
however, obliges Saudi
Arabia to take action to end discrimination
against women without delay. For as long as it fails to take steps to
eliminate the discriminatory practices of male guardianship and sex segregation,
the Saudi government is scorning its international commitment to guarantee
women and girls their rights to education, employment, freedom of movement, marriage
with their free and full consent, and their right to health, including protection from and
redress for family violence.

King
Abdullah bin 'Abd al-'Aziz Al Sa'ud should promulgate by royal decree the
dismantling of the legal guardianship system for adult women. The King
should establish an oversight mechanism to ensure that government agencies no
longer request permission from a guardian to allow adult women to work, travel,
study, marry, receive health care, or access any public service. The Ministries of Health, Higher Education, Interior,
and Labor should issue clear and explicit directives to their staff prohibiting
them from requesting a guardian's presence or permission to allow a woman
access to any service, and they should ensure that women's full realization of
their rights is not compromised or jeopardized by segregation policies and
practices.

Methodology

This
report is based on 109 interviews conducted in Riyadh,
Jeddah, Dammam, and al-Ahsa in November and December 2006 during Human Rights
Watch's first fact-finding visit to Saudi Arabia. During this
three-week investigation, a female researcher interviewed Saudi women from a
range of professional and socioeconomic backgrounds both privately and in group
settings in their homes. Interviews
were conducted in Arabic for the most part and interviewees were
identified largely with the assistance of Saudi human rights activists. This
report also draws on meetings with government officials in Riyadh during a short
visit in March 2008. That visit, coordinated by the Human Rights Commission of
Saudi Arabia, provided the opportunity for the government and Human Rights
Watch to discuss our report findings and recommendations prior to publication.

The
identity of interviewees has been disguised with pseudonyms, and in some cases
certain other identifying information has been withheld, to protect their
privacy. Identifying
information for other individuals has been withheld in some cases for the same
reasons. All participants were
informed of the purpose of the interview, its voluntary nature, and the ways in
which the data would be collected and used, and verbally consented to be
interviewed.

I. Background on Women's Rights and the Role of the Religious
Establishment

Here
we understand [human] nature as static. We think that women can do certain
things but not others.

The religious character of Saudi Arabia, whereby the
state is the guardian of religion and all that it requires in human conduct,has a direct bearing on women's
status in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia applies Sharia (Islamic law) as the law of the
land. The first article of the kingdom's Basic Law of Governance elevates the
Quran and the Prophet's traditions (Sunna) to the status of a constitution.[1]
Consequently, the religious establishment plays a central role in the country's
governance and has broad influence over many aspects of everyday life.[2]It is largely in control of all
levels of education in the kingdom and the all-male judiciary, as well as of
the policing of "public morality" through the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the
Prevention of Vice (the religious police, al-hisba).[3]

Notwithstanding the diversity of its views
in other areas, the religious establishment in Saudi Arabia has by and large opposed the empowerment of Saudi
women. The Council of Senior Religious Scholars,[4] an
official body created as a forum for regular consultation between the monarch
and the religious establishment, successfully orchestrated Saudi Arabia's withdrawal from the 1994 United
Nations Population and Development Conference in Cairo. The Council disapproved of the conference
topics, which included birth control, abortion, equality between men and women,
and co-education, which it said were "against the laws of God and against the
laws of nature."[5]

The Permanent Council for Scientific
Research and Legal Opinions (CRLO), the official institution in Saudi Arabia
entrusted with issuing Islamic legal opinions (fatawa, sing. fatwa), has also consistently promoted
opinions that restrict women's rights. As one scholar noted, "Perhaps it does
not come as a surprise that in most determinations, if the rights of women must
be balanced against the rights of others, the CRLO consistently demands that
women bear the burden of the loss of rights."[6]
For example, when the Council was asked in the late 1990s whether delaying
marriage until a woman finished her secondary or university education was
religiously acceptable, it issued the followingfatwa:

For a woman to progress through university
education, which is something we have no need for, is an issue that needs
examination. What I see [to be correct] is that if a woman finishes elementary
school and is able to read and write, and so she is able to benefit by reading the Book of God, its
commentaries, and Prophetic hadith,
that is sufficient for her. This is so unless she excels in a field that people
need, such as medicine or its like, and as long as this study involves nothing
prohibited, such as the mixing of the sexes and other things.[7]

When asked what the Islamic ruling is with
respect to women's employment, the Council said,

God Almighty … commended women to remain in
their homes. Their presence in the public is the main contributing factor to
the spread of fitna [strife]. Yes, the Shari'ah permits women to leave their
home only when necessary, provided that they wear hijab and avoid all
suspicious situations. However, the general rule is that they should remain at
home.[8]

Much of the support for attributing to women
a diminished personhood is found among these conservative religious scholars, and
the
Saudi royal family, absolute rulers of the kingdom, has been careful in taking
measures that would upset the religious establishment and the latter's place in
the balance of power in the kingdom. As a reflection of this balancing act, the
Saudi foreign minister, Prince Sa'ud al-Faisal, told Human Rights Watch, "Any
decision that does not break the social fabric we will take. We are very much
sensitive to the social cohesion of the country. We are a new country where
social cohesion is very important."[9]

Though
interpretations may vary, there is no question that all the world's religions
are committed to the pursuit of equality and human rights. However, certain
man-made practices performed in the name of religion not only denigrate
individual religions but violate internationally accepted norms of human
rights, including women's rights.

-Radhika Coomaraswamy, then United Nations special
rapporteur on violence against women, 1994[10]

No
other policy affects the status of women in Saudi Arabia more fundamentally
than the government's imposition of male guardianship over women. This practice
is derived from an ambiguous verse in the Quran that some scholars argue has
been misinterpreted by the Saudi religious establishment. Sura 4 verse 34 of
the Quran states, "Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because God
has given the one more [strength] than the other, and because they support them
from their means."[11]

Several Islamic law experts have provided analysis
of the rationale behind the institution of guardianship in Islamic history and
explain its diminishing relevance today. Islamic scholars have argued that male guardianship over women should be
done away with since its two basic preconditions no longer hold true: physical
strength is not relevant in the modern era and women can now support themselves
financially, often sharing in the household expenses.[12]According to some experts, pre-modern
jurists argued for an extension of the authority of male guardians over women
because women were more vulnerable to poverty, harm, and exploitation than men.[13] However,
"reasonable modern jurists realize that an argument for extending protection to
women by assigning them a guardian is much weaker in the modern context."[14]Echoing these views, one Saudi professor
argues, "Guardianship is linked to a certain era where there was insecurity.
But now the authorities and the government are providing you with your
security."[15]

Another
Islamic law expert has argued that there is no basis to conclude that the jurisprudence
of the HanbaliSchool,
the official madhhab (school of thought) in Saudi Arabia, discriminates between
men and women with respect to legal capacity.[16] According to Prof. Mohammad Fadel, the vast
majority of Hanbali texts reject the notion that a husband has some sort of
guardianship powers over his wife that would restrict her independent legal
capacity. While some Hanbali jurists believe that a guardian (or ultimately the
government) can restrict a woman's private rights in the name of some other
good, such as protecting the family name or the sexual boundaries of society,
these restrictions are not legally mandatory. Therefore, according to Professor
Fadel, "any restrictions in Saudi law or custom which prevent women from
exercising their legal rights is a matter of political will and not strict
adherence to Hanbali law."[17]

There
is also considerable disagreement among Islamic jurists on the extent of a male
guardian's authority and its restrictions. For example, different
interpretations in the Hanafi and Shafi'i schools of legal thought limit the
application of guardianship to minors on the basis that they do not have the
full legal capacity to act for themselves. According to Dawoud El Alami, a Sharia
expert at the University
of Wales, "As to who must
have a guardian in marriage, the jurists have taken different positions. The
general view is, however, that minors, the insane, and inexperienced or
irresponsible persons of either sex, must have a guardian - yet the jurists
focus on the woman's need for guardianship while little is said about the need
of the man for the same."[18] Even among those who support male legal
guardianship over adult women, there exist certain requirements for the
exercise of this guardianship. The person must be a Muslim male of sound mind
and good character. Even some Hanbali jurists have argued that guardianship must
take into account Quranic prohibitions on guardians' overreach ('adl) and should be limited and
conditional.[19]

Disregarding
these current debates about the need for guardianship of women, the Saudi
government has allowed its clergy to interpret a verse in the Quran in the most
restrictive way possible and has institutionalized it into every aspect of a
woman's life. A representative of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs argued that
the rationale for guardianship of men over women is based on a guardian's
financial responsibility or obligations towards his female relatives. "It is
not an issue of standards. The issues are clear. A married woman is under her
husband's guardianship.He is
responsible for her education, her health in all cases. Even if she is very
rich, she is not responsible for paying for these costs. She has no
responsibility to pay for the house, or for daily expenditures."[20]

The Saudi government is also unique among
Muslim-majority countries in that it imposes almost complete sex segregation.
While the policy is not discriminatory on its face since it is directed at both
men and women, in practice it prevents Saudi women from participating meaningfully
in public life. The government's Commission
for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice
(the religious police) strictly monitors
and enforces sex segregation in all workplaces with the exception of hospitals.
When they discover unlawful mixing of the sexes, they are authorized to arrest the
violators and bring them to the nearest police station where they can be
criminally charged. Saudi jurists from the Permanent Council for Scientific
Research and Legal Opinions described the rationale behind this policy:

In an Islamic society, the call for women to
join men in their workplace is a grave matter, and intermingling with men is
among its greatest pitfalls. Loose interaction across gender lines is one of
the major causes of fornication, which disintegrates society and destroys its
moral values and all sense of propriety.[21]

According to Ahmad Ahmad, a professor of
religious studies teaching at the University
of California, Santa Barbara, specializing in Sharia, the underlying rationale of
this ruling is outdated in that it assumes that Saudi women simply have no
exposure to public life that would allow them to make informed decisions. "Saudi
clergy who are not in favor of women's freedom speak as if the conditions in
Saudi society today are the same as they were in a pre-modern society where women's vulnerability to harm is a paramount
concern and the realm of women's
experience, by and large, is severely limited."[22] He
noted that other Islamic jurists argue that "modern transformations of society
render certain views restricting women's participation in the public sphere
obsolete" and so "if juristic rulings revolve where the rationale revolves,
then these outdated rulings must revolve out of the realm of juristic
discussion today, as their bases often exist only in distant memory."[23]

Denying Women the Right to Education

Education
is a compulsory religious duty. No one has the right to deprive women of that.

-A Saudi woman, Riyadh, December 2, 2006

Saudi Arabia has made significant
progress on female education and literacy in the past 50 years, albeit within restricted
parameters.[24]
According to a UN report, while in 1970 only 16.4 percent of Saudi women over
the age of 15 were literate, by 2005, 83.3 percent of Saudi women within that
age bracket were estimated to be literate.[25]

Despite these steps forward, the general
framework of education continues to reinforce discriminatory gender roles and
women's second-class status. Article 153 of the Saudi Policy on Education
states, "A girl's education aims at giving her the correct Islamic education to
enable her to be in life a successful housewife, an exemplary wife and a good
mother." To ensure this aim, the Department of Religious Guidance oversaw
girls' schooling at all levels until 2002.[26] Dr.
Amani Hamdan, an education expert who has studied Saudi Arabia's approach to
female education, wrote that "this was to ensure that women's education did not
deviate from the original purpose of female education, which was to make women
good wives and mothers, and to prepare them for 'acceptable' jobs such as
teaching and nursing that were believed to suit their nature."[27]
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed serious concern in 2001
that Saudi Arabia's
"policy on education for girls (e.g. articles 9 and 153 of the 1969 Policy of
Education) discriminates against girls and is incompatible with article 29 (a)
of the Convention."[28]

Women's
and girls' access to education often depends on the good will of male guardians.
According to a number of students, school authorities require a guardian's
permission to enroll women and girls in all levels of education. Female
university students told Human Rights Watch that they cannot pursue a course of
study or apply for an academic internship without permission from their
guardian. One female student told Human Rights Watch, "Even some of our fathers
are disgusted by this. They have to come all the way to the university to
approve our courses and register us."[29] Another student said, "In order to ensure
that a woman's education will not interfere with her household chores, the
husband of one of my peers had to come to the university and give permission to
allow his wife to do an internship during her studies."[30] A representative of King Saud University
(KSU) in Riyadh denied that this was a Ministry of Higher Education policy and
told Human Rights Watch her university does not require permission from a
guardian in order to enroll female students in any discipline. She said that
the dean of the university even intervened when a father refused to allow his
daughter to study dentistry because it would require her to interact with male
students.[31]

To
be eligible for government scholarships to study abroad, the Ministry of Higher
Education requires female students-unlike their male counterparts-to be married
and accompanied by their husband, or otherwise accompanied by a male guardian.[32] The Saudi press has reported on the
increasing phenomenon of "mesfaar
marriages" (derived from the Arabic word for travel) whereby female university
students desperate to continue their studies overseas marry simply in order to
meet these scholarship requirements.[33]

The
practice of strict sex segregation also undermines the right of women to equality
in education. Female university students and professors are often
relegated to unequal facilities with unequal academic opportunities: for
example, at KSU, a public university, female students study in the older
buildings with an inferior library, and the administration only allows them to
use the main library in the male colleges one day per week, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.[34] No
women are allowed in the King Fahd public library in Riyadh; women must call in
advance for materials and send their drivers to pick these up.[35]

University policy also restricts the number
and types of programs offered to female students. While Saudi women make up 58
percent of university graduates,[36]
the vast majority study at teachers' colleges. The state fully funds
undergraduate education for Saudi men and women, but there are still no public
university programs for women in engineering, architecture, or political
science, and women are prohibited from studying these disciplines in the male
colleges. The prestigious King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in
Dhahran continues to exclude female students entirely. According to a Saudi
professor at KingSaudUniversity,
while there are 14 languages taught in the male departments, only two are
taught in the female departments.[37] Several
female medical students at King Fahd Teaching Hospital in Khobar told Human
Rights Watch that some professors do not allow women to pursue studies in those
professors' specialization or department.[38] At
the Teaching Hospital in Khobar, female students are restricted from pursuing a
specialization in general surgery, orthopedic surgery, and pediatrics. One
student said, "In all hospitals, there are certain departments headed by people
who are against women being in the medical profession."[39]

Female
university students at public universities told Human Rights Watch that
university administrators prohibit women from leaving the premises unless they
verify the identity of the person picking them up. A female university
professor confirmed that female departments are locked during the teaching
hours and female students cannot leave the campus unless a legal guardian or
designated driver comes to collect them.[40] Female students living in dormitories said
they are prohibited by school authorities from leaving (even in the case of
illness) except with a legal guardian.
They said school authorities require a guardian's authorization even to
allow ambulance personnel (who are always male) into the school, so if an
emergency arises and academic administrators cannot reach a guardian to
authorize the student's removal, her health and life could be at risk.

The
risk sex segregation can present to life and health is illustrated by reports
of a tragedy in March 2002, when a fire at an elementary girls' school in Mekka
resulted in the death of 15 girls. According to journalists and eyewitnesses,
the religious police did not allow the girls to exit the school without their
headscarves, contributing to their deaths.[41] The Ministry of Education denies this
version of events.

Denying Women the Right to Employment

Women
need jobs and an income, but they are sitting there fighting about
technicalities. Women need jobs not only to support their [nuclear] families
but also their parents. We need to find a way to bring these women into the
labor force.

-A Saudi businesswoman, Jeddah, December 11, 2006

Saudi
women continue to be marginalized almost to the point of total exclusion from
the Saudi workforce. The kingdom has one of the lowest rates of working women
in the world. In
2004, the latest year for which information is available, the United Nations
ranked Saudi Arabia
74th out of 75 countries with respect to gender empowerment, an indicator
determined by the extent to which women are taking part in economic and
political life.[42] Saudi women account for only 4 percent of
the total workforce and 10.7 percent of the Saudi labor force (excluding
migrant workers).[43] As women are prohibited from studying at the
engineering colleges (with the exception of interior design), there are no practicing
female engineers in the kingdom. There are also no female judges, prosecutors,
or practicing lawyers in Saudi
Arabia. While KingAbdulAzizUniversity's
first class of female law students will graduate in 2008, the Saudi Ministry of
Justice continues to prohibit women lawyers from acquiring licenses to
practice.[44]Sharia scholar Shaikh Ahmad bin Hamad
al-Mazyad, who served as a senior advisor to the Ministry of Justice for more
than 20 years, told Human Rights Watch that the appointment of female judges
was not under discussion.[45]

Female
professionals told Human Rights Watch that employers in both the private and
public sector require female staff to obtain the permission of a male guardian
in order to be hired. One woman told Human Rights Watch, "I was applying for a
job as a teacher. All my papers were in order, and everything was fine. But
before I started work, they asked me to get written permission from my guardian
to take the job."[46]A
representative of the Ministry of Labor confirmed that under the current
system, women are required to provide proof of a guardian's permission in order
to be hired in some sectors. While he initially told Human Rights Watch that,
in practice, when women reach working age "employers often do not ask for
permission," he admitted that the government requires teachers, the profession
of the vast majority of Saudi women, to provide such permission. "We ask
[female] teachers to provide permission since they often teach far away, so
yes, they need permission from a guardian. But we often don't ask in the
medical sector."[47]

Employers
can force a woman to resign or fire her at any time if her guardian decides
(for any reason) that he no longer wants her to work outside the home.

Although
the new Saudi Labor Code, which came into force in 2006, does not include a
provision requiring sex segregation in the workplace, there is little evidence that this has in any way affected the current
work environment, which remains highly segregated. The Code states that
"all Saudi workers have equal right to work in all parts of the kingdom,
without discrimination,"[48] but other provisions within the Code
counteract the equality provision, notably article 149, which states, "Taking
into consideration the provisions of article 4 [vaguely requiring adherence to Sharia]
of this law,[49] women shall work in all fields suitable to
their nature."[50]

Sex
segregation in the workplace has particularly adverse and discriminatory
consequences for women by making them unattractive as employees. For employers,
the need to establish separate facilities for women, and women's inability to interact
with government agencies without a male representative, provide significant
disincentives to hiring them.[51] An additional disincentive is that employers
must sometimes coordinate their female employees' transportation since women
are barred from driving. One businesswoman told Human Rights Watch that she is
forced to raise the salaries of her female employees to compensate for their transportation
costs:

Otherwise her salary will go solely to pay
for transportation. If a cleaning lady gets 1500 SR [US$400], 500 SR [US$133]
goes to the driver. Transportation is a big problem. As a businesswoman, I'll
always hire a man over a woman; for the woman, I have to figure out how she's
going to come into work every morning. Some will tell me the driver didn't come
today or came an hour late. How can I blame her for that? I'm not talking about
rich women who can get a driver, but everyone else. You can't depend on your
brother or father or uncle to take you where you need to go. It's not a luxury;
it's one of the basic needs of life.[52]

In
2005 the Council of Ministers passed Resolution 120 aimed at expanding
employment opportunities for women. Section 8 of the resolution stipulates that
only Saudi women would be allowed to work in shops for women's products.
However, opposition from influential religious authorities hostile to women's participation
in the public space is said to have blocked these efforts.[53] Minister of Labor Ghazi al-Qusaibi told
Human Rights Watch, "We want to expand the horizon for women to participate in
the labor force. We thought to go about it in a way that doesn't clash with our
mores. We started with places that sell women's clothing and lingerie. We want
to start with those, then at least get some support. We were surprised by the
most ferocious and orchestrated attack against us."[54] As the government did not establish any
implementing authority to execute the resolution, the resolution was never put
into practice.

Denying
Women the Right to Health

Even
if you go to a hospital for an operation, you need a guardian. It's your life.
Why do you need his signature?

-A Saudi woman, Riyadh, November 29, 2006

Saudi
women's fundamental right to health is jeopardized by the male guardianship
system. At some hospitals, health officials require a guardian's permission for
women to be admitted, discharged, or to administer a medical procedure on her
or her children. The requirement for guardian consent is not based on any
regulation, but as one physician explained to Human Rights Watch, "It depends
on the [hospital] administration, whether those responsible hold extremist
religious views or not."[55] The head of the General Directorate of
Hospitals told Human Rights Watch,

The law is written and clear that a woman has
the right to be admitted without permission. It is the right of any lady or
male to be admitted and discharged if [they are] over 18. Any procedure can be
signed by the patient himself if they are wise enough. It is well known that a physician
must provide medical care whenever a patient needs it. But a lot of social
factors play a role limiting the application of the law. What we need right now
is to work hard to educate the people about their rights. The law is there;
that it is not applied is something else.[56]

Given
the all-encompassing guardianship system in place in the kingdom, it is clear
that the Ministry of Health has a vital role to play in informing female patients
of their rights and ensuring that health professionals do not violate their medical
obligations by requiring a guardian's permission for a woman to receive care of
any kind.

Health
professionals told Human Rights Watch that healthcare providers require
husbands to approve, in particular, any treatments that may affect the
fertility of their spouses.[57] However, a representative of the Ministry of
Health told Human Rights Watch that under their guidelines the only medical
procedure requiring a guardian's permission was sterilization.[58] One woman told Human Rights Watch, "I had a
problem with my cervix. The doctor told me that I needed an operation and
wouldn't be able to have any more children. I needed to bring my husband to the
hospital to sign and approve the operation."[59] One physician described her frustration with
this policy: "Why does a husband need to sign and approve these procedures? Why
should she wait to be treated? What if he doesn't care about her physical well-being?"[60]

Another
physician told Human Rights Watch, "When no guardian is available, some
hospitals require medical procedures to be approved by two medical consultants
and a medical director. If it's an emergency, we can proceed."[61] One woman told Human Rights Watch, "My
sister needed to get approval to have an IV inserted. We got the driver to sign
and approve it."[62]

Women in labor who arrive at a hospital
without a guardian are particularly at risk since the authorities could contend
that the pregnancy was the result of an extramarital relationship, a criminal
offense. A clinical psychologist told
Human Rights Watch,

If a [pregnant] woman comes in to the
hospital with a guardian, then she can leave with anyone, even the driver. If
she comes in without a guardian, it becomes a "police case," and she'll need a
guardian to come to the hospital in order for her to get discharged. She stays
here if no one picks her up.[63]

A physician at the Riyadh military hospital told Human Rights
Watch that two years previously, a woman came into the hospital in labor without
her guardian and required an emergency caesarian section. Her husband was
traveling and could not provide permission for the procedure. The physician
carried out the operation anyway, taking on considerable personal
responsibility. Once the husband was able to arrive at the hospital, they
managed to falsify the date of approval to predate the procedure.[64]

Contributing to Women's Risk of Violence

There's
no other place we can send her. We're always going to run into the problem of
guardianship. We treat all the abuse cases, and then they go home. The police
advise the women to go back to their husbands. They don't do anything that will
cause a scandal. They will advise them that it's important to avoid scandal and
then they are convinced.

-A Saudi social worker, Riyadh, December 7, 2006

The
imposition of male guardianship on women makes it nearly impossible for victims
of domestic violence to independently seek protection or to obtain legal redress.
Police frequently require women and girls to obtain their guardian's permission
to file a criminal complaint, even when the complaint is against the guardian.[65] A social worker at the National Guard
Hospital in Riyadh
described her frustration with this policy and gave an illustration of her hospital's
inability to respond to cases of violence against women. The social worker told
Human Rights Watch about a case of a Saudi woman in her late thirties wh0 came
to the hospital after her husband shot her. "Her husband was a retired police
officer, an alcoholic and drug addict. She came in twice with bullet wounds.
After we treated her the first time, I came in with the police to ask her whether
she wanted to file a complaint. To do that, she would need a legal guardian to
file it on her behalf at a police station in her neighborhood," she said.
Understandably, the woman chose not to file the complaint. When her husband
later shot her a third time, she died of her wounds at the hospital.[66]

The
lack of specific legislation criminalizing all forms of family violence and the
near impossibility of removing guardianship from abusive relatives can condemn
women and children to a life of violence. According to an attorney
working with the National Society for Human Rights (the only recognized
quasi-independent human rights organization in the country), removing
guardianship from a father, even an abusive one, is one of the most difficult
legal processes they undertake. Only 1–2 percent of these cases succeed.[67] In
one case it took the courts five years to remove the guardianship from a father
who was sexually abusing his children.[68]One clinical psychologist told Human Rights
Watch of a case in which a father sexually abused his five daughters. When one
of them complained to the police, they asked her to bring her guardian to the
station to file the report.[69] Another physician who runs a private clinic
told Human Rights Watch, "There are no laws that protect women. Every day we
see cases, and there is nothing we can do to protect them. This is his daughter
or wife, so he can do whatever he wants with her. There are no laws that
protect women from abusive situations."[70]

The
prevailing environment of sex segregation makes women hesitant to walk into a
police station (all police officers are male). Some Saudi women voiced
reluctance about even calling the police without a guardian in the house. One
social worker told Human Rights Watch, "A woman cannot just walk into any
police station. She needs a legal guardian."[71] The Saudi authorities did not respond to
Human Rights Watch's request for information about whether the police officially
require a guardian's permission to admit women into the station.[72]

Denying Women the Right to Equality before the Law

You're
faced with being humiliated daily. We really do not have an identity.

-A
female Saudi professor, Riyadh,
November 29, 2006

While
in the vast majority of countries governments only deny minors and those with
certain mental disabilities the right to make decisions for themselves, in
Saudi Arabia the government extends these limitations on legal capacity to
fully competent adult women. At its core, the imposition of male guardianship
denies Saudi women their right under the UN Convention on the Elimination of
all Forms of Discrimination against Women to "a legal capacity identical to
that of men and the same opportunities to exercise that capacity."[73] The Saudi authorities essentially treat adult
women as legal minors who are entitled to little authority over their own lives
and well-being.

Women
and the courts

As
legal minors, women are severely constrained in their ability to access and
engage with the courts and the government bureaucracy without a male
representative. Women continue to have trouble filing a case or being heard in
court without a legal guardian. Courts generally refuse to accept a Muslim
woman's testimony as a witness in criminal cases.[74] Two women told Human Rights Watch that
judges had refused to allow them to speak in the courtroom because they deemed
their voices to be shameful ('awra).[75] Judges granted only their mahram (chaperone) the right to speak on
their behalf. When asked about this, a
former representative of the Ministry of Justice told Human Rights Watch that
women are entitled to be present in the courtroom and speak to judges if they
are wearing a full face veil (niqab).
He added that any restrictions "could be an exceptional case. It depends. No
one should raise their voices or speak in too feminine a manner in the
courtroom."[76] Saudi courts require a mu'arif (a
person able to identify a woman wearing niqab)
to confirm a woman's identity before she enters the courtroom; it is not enough
to have an ID card. This same representative confirmed that without female
sections in the courts with female staff able to confirm a woman's identity,
all women are required to bring a mu'arif.[77]One
attorney told Human Rights Watch, "The attitude in the Sharia courts is that
people don't need lawyers to deal with the sheikh. Of course a woman shouldn't
address the sheikh herself. If she does, she needs to wear niqab. It's
preferred that a mahram speaks for her."[78] According to another attorney,
"Unfortunately, judges consider women to be lacking in 'aql [reason] and faith, so generally do not agree with her
arguments."[79]

The
government's guardianship policy has created a legal paradox that holds women
legally responsible for any crimes they commit while at the same time not
considering them to have full legal capacity. In fact Saudi Arabia has established no minimum
age of criminal responsibility for girls. While there is no law determining a
uniform age when children can be treated as adults in criminal cases, the Council
of Senior Scholars decreed puberty as the threshold for trying a child as an adult
in murder and manslaughter cases.[80] While the Saudi government denies women their
right to make decisions throughout their lives, it has no apparent qualms about
holding them responsible for their actionsat puberty. "If we commit a
crime, we will be held responsible just like any man. But when we want to deal
with our own affairs and finances, we cannot," said one woman.[81]

Identity
documents

The
government only granted Saudi women the right to an independent identification
card in 2001. Prior to 2001 the authorities registered all Saudi women under
their father or husband's family card. Obtaining a separate identification card
is optional and still requires a guardian's permission. According to the Saudi
Civil Affairs Law, "Whoever completes fifteen years of age of the male Saudi
nationals shall check with one of the civil status department to obtain his own
identity card, and obtaining such card shall be optional for women and for
those between ten and fifteen years of age after agreement of their guardians."[82] One 22-year-old woman told Human Rights
Watch, "I don't have a right to ask for my identity. The law says that all
women should have an ID card, but we need permission from our guardian. I've
been asking my father to take me to get one for a year, but he has refused."[83] While the Ministry of Interior is said to
have taken a decision recently eliminating the need for a guardian's permission
for women to issue ID cards for themselves or their children, Human Rights
Watch was not able to find any written evidence of this decision. As late as
March 2008, Saudi women complained that officials continued to ask for a
guardian's permission to issue the cards.

While
the religious police put pressure on Saudi women to wear full niqab in
public, as a security measure they appear with their faces uncovered in their
identification cards. Saudi women who wear full niqab must bring a mu'arif to identify them in order to
carry out any administrative actions that would require a verification of their
identity in offices without women's sections. One woman told Human Rights
Watch, "Nobody recognizes our ID cards. I can't even pick up my divorce papers
with it. If I try, they will ask me to bring someone in to verify who I am."
Even the most mundane tasks often require a mu'arif. For example, some cellphone stores
prohibit women from buying cellphones without their guardian. One woman told
Human Rights Watch, "My daughter tried to get [a cellphone] and told the
salesman that she could uncover her face to verify her identity but the
salesman refused."[84]

Particular
difficulties facing divorcees and widows

The lack
of full legal capacity affects divorcees and widows in particular, many of whom
find it extremely difficult to survive in Saudi Arabia without a male
guardian who is willing and able to navigate the government bureaucracy on her
behalf. One woman told Human Rights Watch, "You need a guardian for everything,
and poverty makes this need even worse. Women are lost when their guardian is
absent. Her whole life gets cut off. She cannot do anything." Another woman
told Human Rights Watch that her mother decided to remarry because of the
problems she faced with male guardianship: "She had to get married to get
things done. She told me, 'I sold my body so that my paperwork can get taken
care of. It's tarnished my reputation and dignity, but our affairs are being
resolved.' I saw how much my mother suffered from guardianship. We cannot take
any step forward without a guardian's approval."[85]

While
the authorities usually transfer guardianship of divorcees and widows to their
closest male relative, some foreigners who acquired Saudi nationality through
marriage and subsequently divorced remain in the kingdom without a guardian; while
most return to their country of origin, some continue to reside in Saudi Arabia
in order to ensure contact with their children. One such woman, a divorcee,
told Human Rights Watch, "I'm mahram-less,
which makes me persona non grata in Saudi Arabia … I don't really exist
in the system. My passport is a married passport and in order to transfer it to
a single passport, I need an ID card."[86] However, she is unable to get an
identification card without a guardian and needs her ex-husband's permission in
order to travel with her current passport. She is also concerned that if she
were to return to her country of origin, the Saudi authorities may deny her a
visa to reenter Saudi Arabia
to see her children.

Denying
Women the Right to Freedom of Movement

Does
the fact that a son supports his mother, or a brother his sister, empower them
to restrict her movements? What if that son or brother were evil, unkind to his
parents or sisters, refusing to let his mother travel even in cases of
necessity?

-Saudi writer Nura al-Khuraiji's open letter
to the Consultative Council, April 2000[87]

No
country restricts the movement of its female population more than the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Ministry of Interior prohibits
Saudi women from boarding a plane without the written permission of a male
guardian. When traveling without a guardian, the ministry requires Saudi women
to travel with yellow cards that stipulate the number of trips and for how many
days their guardian has approved their traveling.[88] The authorities also deny women the right to
acquire a passport without a guardian's permission.[89]The Ministry of Interior's website
contains a specific section on "Travel Permits for Women and Children" where it
clearly states, "Passport owners cannot travel before being issued a travel
visa from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and family guardian approval is
necessary to issue this visa."[90]Airport officials may stop women from
boarding a flight without valid permission. One 35-year-old woman, Wafa A.,
told Human Rights Watch, "I worked for five years at a bank. I'm completely
financially independent. But the major problem that I'm facing is that I'm not
allowed to travel even to Jeddah or the EasternProvince
without permission. Sometimes I have work in Jeddah but I can't go." Wafa A.'s father
transferred guardianship rights to her brother, who is 10 years younger than
her: "My father gave him full control and responsibility over me … My father is
still my guardian on paper, but my brother is the one in reality."[91]Foreign
women under the age of 45 traveling to Saudi Arabia for the hajj or pilgrimage are required to travel with a male relative as their chaperone.[92]

Saudi Arabia remains the only country in the world that
prohibits women from driving. The government's restrictions on driving combined
with limited affordable and accessible public transportation options prevent Saudi
women from fully participating in public life. While the government claims that
there is no official ban,[93] there are no women drivers in the kingdom as
it universally understood that it is not allowed. A fatwa (religious ruling) issued by
the late Shaikh 'Abd al-'Aziz bin Abdullah bin Baz, then chairman of the Council
of Senior Religious Scholars, reinforced the prohibition. The fatwa stated,

There is no doubt that such [driving] is not
allowed. Women driving lead to many evils and negative consequences. Included
among these is her mixing with men without her being on her guard. It also
leads to the evil sins due to which such an action is forbidden.[94]

On November 6, 1990, 47 Saudi
women drove in a Riyadh
parking lot in protest against the driving ban. The traffic police stopped the
protesters, took them into custody, and released them only after their male
guardians signed statements that they would never attempt to drive again. The
government suspended the women from their government jobs, confiscated their
passports, and told them not to speak to the press. Several of the women were
forced out of their jobs for three years.[95] Sixteen years on, one such woman told Human
Rights Watch she believes she has been denied many opportunities for career
advancement due to her participation in the protest.[96]

Denying Women the Right to Equality in Marriage

The Right to Enter Freely into Marriage

Like other Muslim-majority countries, Saudi Arabia
relies on a personal law system based on Sharia, which treats marriage as a
contract concluded by mutually consenting parties where one party makes an
offer (ijab) and the other accepts (qabul).[97] The Saudi
authorities limit a woman's
ability to enter freely into marriage by requiring her to have the permission
of a male guardian (wali al-amr). Guardianship in marriage falls under
two categories: guardianship with the right of compulsion (wilayat-ul-ijbar),and
guardianship without the right of compulsion (wilayat-un-nadb).[98] According to scholars, the opinion of the
jurists in the HanbaliSchool is that "[a] guardian
who is the father or grandfather of a minor or virgin girl is free to approve a
marriage for his ward without her consultation."[99] However, Hanbali scholars recommend that the
approval of virgin women who have reached majority be given as well as the
approval of minor girls who have already been married.[100] In Saudi Arabia guardians also have
the unilateral authority to dissolve marriages they deem unfit.

In
April 2005 Grand Mufti Shaikh Abd al-'Aziz Al al-Shaikh, the head of the Council of Senior Religious
Scholars, spoke out against forced marriages, stating, "Forcing a woman to
marry someone she does not want and preventing her from wedding that whom she
chooses ... is not permissible" under Islamic law.[101] However, to date the government has done nothing
to prevent Sharia court judges from preventing women from choosing their spouse
or forcing their divorce when their guardians insist on it.

A recent
case given a high profile in the Saudi press highlights the overarching power
legal guardians have to dissolve marriages they deem unacceptable. It concerns
the forcible divorce of 34-year-old Fatima `Azzaz from Mansour al-Timani.[102] Fatima `Azzaz's half-brothers took legal
action following the death of their father, claming that Mansour had
misrepresented his tribal affiliation when he asked for permission to marry Fatima. While Fatima, who was pregnant at the time of the
first hearing, informed Judge Ibrahim al-Farraj at a court in the northern city
of Juf that she
wanted to remain married, he ruled in favor of the brothers and ordered the
divorce in August 2005. He found that Timani's tribal lineage was socially
inadequate for him to marry `Azzaz, essentially declaring that the marriage
could harm the reputation of `Azzaz's family since Timani is of a lower social
class. Following the court ruling, EasternProvince governorate
officials, who answer to the Ministry of Interior, harassed and persecuted the
couple, including by detaining `Azzaz and her two children in Dammam Public
Prison because of her unwillingness to return to her half-brothers, whom she
feared because of violence directed against her and a history of family
disputes. In April 2006 she was transferred to another detention center in
Dammam under the administration of the Ministry of Social Affairs, where she
remains at this writing. The Riyadh Court of Appeals in January 2007 upheld the
original court verdict, ending judicial appeals.[103]

In
February 2007 a group of Saudi women launched a petition to King Abdullah
urging him to forward the couple's case to the Supreme Judicial Council in an
effort to reverse the appellate court's decision. The petition also asked the king
to re-evaluate the "laws pertaining to guardianship of competent, adult women."[104] The government did not respond to this petition.
The chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Saudi Arabia told Human Rights
Watch in March 2008 that he has asked the king to intervene several times in
the case. The Commission has commissioned a study by a Sharia expert on the
unlawfulness of divorces based on differing tribal lineage that they plan to send
to the Supreme Judicial Council.[105]

The
Right to Equality with Respect to Guardianship of Children

The
Saudi government deprives women of the right not only to act as their own
guardian but also to be the legal guardian of their children during marriage
and following divorce.[106] In the event of divorce the
law automatically transfers legal and physical custody to fathers when boys are
nine and girls are seven; even
when women succeed in getting a court to grant them physical custody of their
children (for example, because the father is found unfit), fathers always retain
legal custody and the right to make virtually every decision for the children. Married
and divorced Saudi women alike told Human Rights Watch that they cannot open
bank accounts for their children, enroll them in school, obtain school files,
or travel with their children without written permission from their children's
father. One woman told Human Rights Watch, "I tried to have a birth certificate
issued for my one-year-old child but I couldn't. They needed the legal guardian
[to make the request]. I can't even deposit a birthday check into his account
for him."[107]

Human Rights Watch spoke to a divorced woman
in her thirties who has physical custody of her children while their father
retains legal guardianship. In December 2006 two doctors recommended that her
11-year-old son have a minor operation. Her husband refused to provide
permission for the operation, which he deemed to be unnecessary. "I spoke to
the insurance company, and they said they received approval to carry out the
operation but it was cancelled. I asked them why, and they said that it was
because the father had prohibited it." In
an effort to override his decision, she wrote letters to the minister of
justice, the governor of Riyadh,
and the head of the Human Rights Commission. Initially, the governor's office
told her that there was nothing they could do, but two weeks later they
provided permission to go ahead with the operation.[108]

A pediatrician confirmed to us that while
either a mother or father can sign for an operation under the Ministry of
Health's guidelines, some doctors assume that only the child's father is
empowered to do so. "A mother can sign for her child. But there are some
problems with doctors. We need to educate them that a wali al-amr [guardian]is
a mother or father."[109]

In
exceptional cases when no male guardian is present, the Saudi authorities allow
women to play an advisory role (wisaya) of children, with legal
guardianship rights. Human Rights Watch spoke to a woman in her thirties who is
the legal advisor of two teenage half-sisters, while her own guardian is her uncle.
"I'm a responsible person … I have the wasiya of two younger siblings
and can take responsibility for these two girls but I can't take responsibility
for myself. Instead, someone who doesn't support me in any way or even contact
me can make decisions about my life."[110] This creates the paradox that women may have
legal authority over others while they themselves still require a guardian's permission
in major aspects of their lives.

III.
Saudi
Arabia's Obligations
under International Law

The
Committee urges the State party to take immediate steps to end the practice of
male guardianship over women.

-Concluding Observations of the CEDAW
Committee, February 2008

Through its ratification of the UN
Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW) in 2001, Saudi
Arabia assumed the obligation to take action
to end discrimination against women in all its forms.[111]
The convention obliges Saudi Arabia "to pursue by all appropriate means and
without delay a policy of eliminating discrimination against women" including
"any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has
the purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise
by women … of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic,
social, cultural, civil or any other field."[112]

Saudi Arabia's reservations to
critical articles in CEDAW and its general reservation to the treaty cast doubt
on its commitment to advance women's rights. The Saudi government entered a
general reservation upon ratification of CEDAW stating that "In case of contradiction
between any term of the Convention and the norms of Islamic law, the kingdom is
not under obligation to observe the contradictory terms of the Convention." Saudi Arabia
is asserting
full authority on the basis of religion to discriminate against women in
any of the areas specified in the treaty. Saudi Arabia also "does not
consider itself bound by paragraph2 of article 9of the Convention"
granting women equal rights with men with respect to the nationality of their
children. Reservations that are incompatible with the object and purpose of a
treaty violate international law[113]
and are unacceptable precisely because they would render a basic international
obligation meaningless.

CEDAW explicitly acknowledges social and
cultural norms as the source of many women's rights abuses, and obliges
governments to take appropriate measures to address such abuses. Article 5(a)
of the convention obliges states to "modify the social and cultural patterns of
conduct of men and women, with a view to achieving the elimination of
prejudices and customary and all other practices which are based on the idea of
the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped
roles for men and women."[114] As
the findings of this report demonstrate, the Saudi government has not only done
little to tackle these customary laws and practices, it has instituted an
entire system that is premised on the inferiority of women.

Saudi Arabia's imposition of male
legal guardianship on adult women violates article 15 of CEDAW, which requires
states to "accord to women, in civil matters, a legal capacity identical to
that of men and the same opportunities to exercise that capacity." States
parties are further required to ensure that "all contracts and all other
private instruments of any kind with a legal effect which is directed at
restricting the legal capacity of women shall be deemed null and void."[115] In
Saudi Arabia
the government only grants adult men the right to full legal capacity. The
authorities deprive women of this right and subsequently deny them the ability
to act not only on their own behalf but also on behalf of their children.

Numerous treaties and treaty bodies
acknowledge women's equal rights to travel, work, study, access health care,
and marry without discrimination. Article 15(4) of CEDAW obliges states to
"accord to men and women the same rights with regard to the law relating to the
movement of persons and the freedom to choose their residence and domicile."[116]
Restrictions imposed on women's freedom of movement in Saudi Arabia also violate the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is considered customary
international law. Article 13 provides that "Everyone has the right to freedom
of movement and residence within the borders of each state" and that "Everyone
has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country."
Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights also
sets out the right to freedom of movement. The UN Human Rights Committee, in
its General Comment on the right to freedom of movement, stated that states'
obligation to protect freedom of movement is particularly pertinent in the case
of women. It went on to say, "[I]t is incompatible with article 12, paragraph
1, that the right of a woman to move freely and to choose her residence is made
subject, by law or practice, to the decision of another person, including a
relative."[117]While Saudi Arabia is not a party to
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the government informed
a United Nations committee in March 2003 that it would "soon accede" to this
treaty.[118]

With regard to nondiscrimination in
employment, Saudi Arabia
has additional obligations as a member of the International Labour Organization
(ILO) and as a party to ILO Convention No. 111 dealing with discrimination in
employment.[119]
Since 1991 the ILO's Committee of Experts has repeatedly expressed concern
about the government's policy on sex segregation in the workplace codified in
section 160 of the 1969 Labor Code. The Committee has said the following in
relation to segregation in the workplace:

The Committee notes once again that Section
160 of the Labour Code has the effect of prejudicing equality of opportunity
and treatment between men and women and is therefore incompatible with the
Convention. The prohibition on men and women being together at the workplace
results in occupational segregation according to sex since it restricts women
to jobs where they will only be in contact with other women and which are deemed
to be suitable to their nature and not contrary to current traditions.[120]

The Committee also criticized the
restriction of women to occupations deemed suitable to their nature and not
contrary to "tradition."[121] It
called on Saudi Arabia
to review the occupations and activities that women may not perform, in light
of current scientific knowledge and technology relevant to those occupations. As
noted above, while the new Saudi Labor Code, which came into force on April 23, 2006, does not
include a provision enforcing sex segregation in the workplace, there is little
evidence that this has in any way affected the current work environment, which
remains highly segregated.

The need for a male guardian to grant a
woman permission to work and his ability to suspend her employment at any time
and for any reason also violates Saudi Arabia's obligations under
article 11 of CEDAW. Article 11 stipulates that

States Parties shall take all appropriate
measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of employment
in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, the same rights,
in particular:

(a) The right to work as an inalienable
right of all human beings;

(c) The right to free choice of profession
and employment, the right to promotion, job security and all benefits and
conditions of service.

With regard to education, CEDAW further
obliges Saudi Arabia
to

take all appropriate measures to eliminate
discrimination against women in order to ensure to them equal rights with men
in the field of education and in particular to ensure, on a basis of equality
of men and women:

(a) The same conditions for career and
vocational guidance, for access to studies and for the achievement of diplomas
in educational establishments of all categories;

(d) The same opportunities to benefit from
scholarships and other study grants;

(e) The same opportunities for access to
programmes of continuing education, including adult and functional literacy
programmes, particularly those aimed at reducing, at the earliest possible
time, any gap in education existing between men and women.[122]

Saudi Arabia has ratified the UNESCO
Convention against Discrimination in Education, which specifies that
segregation is not in itself a breach of the Convention if "these systems or
institutions offer equivalent access to education, provide a teaching staff
with qualifications of the same standard as well as school premises and
equipment of the same quality, and afford the opportunity to take the same or
equivalent courses of study."[123] As
noted in Chapter III, in Saudi
Arabia, segregation often means that women
are relegated to inferior facilities and unequal opportunities.

CEDAW also provides that states "shall take
all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in all
matters relating to marriage and family relations."[124] In
particular, states are required to afford to women the right to enter into
marriage only with their free and full consent.[125]Saudi Arabia
violates this fundamental right when it allows legal guardians to withhold
consent for marriages or dissolve marriages that they see as unfit. By denying women legal guardianship of
children, Saudi Arabia is also violating article 16(f) of CEDAW, which clearly
notes that state parties should ensure men and women "[t]he same rights and
responsibilities with regard to guardianship, wardship, trusteeship and
adoption of children, or similar institutions where these concepts exist in
national legislation; in all cases the interests of the children shall be paramount."

Saudi Arabia's failure to ensure
that all hospitals admit women and provide medical treatment without a male
guardian's consent violates its obligations to ensure women's basic health
rights. Article 12 of CEDAW obliges states to "take all appropriate measures to
eliminate discrimination against women in the field of health care in order to
ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, access to health care
services, including those related to family planning."[126]

The CEDAW Committee, in its General
Recommendation on the Right to Health, also explicitly states,

The obligation to respect rights requires
States parties to refrain from obstructing action taken by women in pursuit of
their health goals … States parties should not restrict women's access to
health services or to the clinics that provide those services on the ground
that women do not have the authorization of husbands, partners, parents or
health authorities, because they are unmarried or because they are women.[127]

When legal guardianship stands in the way of
redress for victims of violence, Saudi Arabia is also failing to act with due
diligence to prevent, investigate, and punish violence against women, putting
women's health and lives in jeopardy. Domestic violence prevents women from
exercising a host of other rights. These rights include the right not to be
subject to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,[128]security of person,[129]and in extreme cases, the right to life.[130]
The CEDAW Committee noted that "gender-based violence is a form of
discrimination that seriously inhibits women's ability to enjoy rights and
freedoms on a basis of equality with men," including the right to the highest
attainable standard of physical and mental health.[131] In
2001 the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child reviewed Saudi Arabia's initial report under
the Convention on the Rights of the Child.[132]The Committee expressed concern that "domestic
violence is a problem in Saudi Arabia and that this has harmful consequences on
children,"[133] and
recommended that Saudi Arabia "establish hotlines and shelters, staffed by
women, for the protection of women and children at risk of or fleeing abuse"
and "seek assistance from UNICEF [the United Nations Children's Fund] and WHO
[the World Health Organization], among others" to carry this out.[134]

The Committee on the Rights of the Child also
expressed concern about discriminatory laws and polices in force in the kingdom.
It recommended that Saudi Arabia "take effective measures, including enacting
or rescinding civil and criminal legislation where necessary, to prevent and
eliminate discrimination on the grounds of sex and birth in all fields of
civil, economic, political, social and cultural life." The Committee also
encouraged Saudi Arabia
"to consider the practice of other States that have been successful in
reconciling fundamental rights with Islamic texts."[135]

IV. Recommendations

To the Government of Saudi Arabia

To King Abdullah bin 'Abd al-'Aziz Al Sa'ud

Promulgate by royal decree the dismantling of the
legal guardianship system for adult women, guaranteeing that women are
considered to have reached full legal capacity at 18 years of age. In the
interim, ensure that all government agencies no longer request permission
from a guardian to allow adult women to work, travel, study, marry,
receive health care, or access any public service.

Appoint a committee tasked with examining the ways in
which strict sex segregation prevents Saudi women from fully participating
in public life.

Establish an independent body tasked with monitoring
the implementation of laws, royal decrees, and ministerial decisions that
advance women's rights, including decisions that limit a guardian's
authority, and create female sections in all government offices.

Appoint women as full members to the consultative
council to ensure that women in the kingdom have a voice in decision making.

Sign and
ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination
of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

Lift reservations made upon acceding to CEDAW, which
violate the object and purpose of the treaty.

Implement the recommendation made by the Committee on
the Rights of the Child to seek technical assistance from the Office of
the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Children's Fund,
and the World Health Organization to support efforts to address violence
against women and children.

Establish an independent mechanism with a mandate to
regularly monitor and evaluate progress in the implementation of CEDAW and
the Convention on the Rights of the Child at the national and local
levels.

To the Ministry of Interior

Issue clear and explicit directives to all police
stations allowing women to enter the station and file a complaint without
the presence or approval of a guardian.

Amend Section 8 of the Civil Affairs Law requiring
women to get permission from a
guardian in order to acquire a separate identification card for themselves or their children. Publicize
widely any decisions that have been taken to eliminate this requirement,
and ensure that all civil servants are aware of any new regulations in
this area.

Eliminate any
restrictions on female driving in the kingdom, ensuring that women are
afforded the same opportunities to drive and acquire a driver's license as
men. The ministry should also approve a system of public transportation for
women who cannot afford a car or driver.

To the Ministry of Higher Education

Issue clear and explicit directives to all academic
institutions prohibiting staff from requesting a guardian's permission to
allow a woman to be admitted for any course of study, or from removing a
female student from her program at the request of a male relative.

Uphold the rights of female university students to
freedom of movement by removing the need for a male guardian's permission
to allow students over the age of 18 to leave university grounds.

To the Ministry of Labor

Issue clear and explicit directives to all places of
employment prohibiting staff from requesting a guardian's presence or
permission to allow a woman to work, or from removing a female employee
from her position at the request of a male relative.

Remove any special procedures imposed on female
business owners, including the need for a male proxy to conduct business and
the need for permission from a guardian to access a loan.

To the Ministry of Health

Issue clear and explicit directives to all government
hospitals and private clinics prohibiting their staff from requesting a
guardian's presence or permission to allow a female adult patient to be
admitted, discharged, or receive care of any kind.

Ensure that the Patient's Bill of Rights explicitly affords
female patients in the kingdom the same access to health care as male
patients.

To the Ministry of Justice

Ensure that women are afforded the same rights as men
to file a case, testify in court on all matters, including criminal
matters, and speak on their own behalf in the courtroom.

Establish women's sections in all courtrooms and in
the Ministry of Justice's headquarters in Riyadh in order to ensure that
women have equal access to justice and no longer need to bring a relative
to identify them in court.

Eliminate restrictions on the appointment of women as
judges, members of the Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution, and
law enforcement officers. Ensure that all female lawyers who wish to
practice law can obtain lawyers' licenses.

Ensure the right of all adults to freely enter into
marriage. The ministry should also instruct judges not to accept law suits
from third parties seeking to judicially divorce couples.

Ensure that upon divorce, custody is determined on
the basis of the best interests of the child in line with international
standards. The ministry should ensure that during a marriage and following
a divorce, both parents should have equal rights to open bank accounts for
their children, enroll them in school, obtain school files, or travel with
them.

To Governments with Final or Pending Free Trade Agreements with Saudi Arabia

Condition the ratification of free trade agreements
with the government of Saudi
Arabia on improved protection for
women's rights. In particular, insist that prior to adoption of the agreements,
Saudi Arabia
dismantle the legal guardianship system that denies Saudi women their most
basic rights.

Include in free trade agreements with the government
of Saudi Arabia
strong, binding, and enforceable women's rights provisions that require
that the kingdom's laws and policies conform to international human rights
standards.

Acknowledgments

Farida Deif,
Middle East and North Africa researcher for
the Women's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, authored this report based on
research conducted in November and December 2006. LaShawn
R. Jefferson, then executive director of the Women's Rights
Division; Janet Walsh, acting director
of the Women's Rights Division; Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East
and North Africa Division; Joe Stork,
Washington Director of the Middle East and North Africa Division; Christoph Wilcke, researcher for Saudi Arabia;
Clarisa Bencomo, Middle East and North Africa researcher in the Children's
Rights Division; Aisling Reidy, senior
legal advisor; and Ian Gorvin, senior
program officer, reviewed the report. We are especially grateful for the
critical insights and advice on Islamic jurisprudence provided by Prof. Ahmad
Ahmad, assistant professor of Religious Studies at the
University of California,
Santa Barbara, and Prof. Mohammad Fadel,
assistant professor of Law at the University
of Toronto. Lama Fakih,
intern with the Women's Rights Division, provided valuable research assistance.
Rachel Jacobson, Emily Allen, Tarek Radwan,
Andrea Holley, Grace Choi, Fitzroy Hepkins, and José Martinez provided
production assistance.

The Women's Rights
Division gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the many individuals in Saudi Arabia
who were instrumental in our efforts to investigate human rights violations
stemming from male guardianship and sex segregation. Most of all, Human Rights
Watch wishes to thank all the courageous Saudi women who were willing to speak
to us of their experiences, without whom this report would not have been
possible.

We acknowledge with gratitude the financial support of Arcadia, the Frog Crossing
Foundation, the Moriah Fund, the Oak Foundation, the Streisand Foundation, the
Silverleaf Foundation, the Banky-LaRocque Foundation, the Schooner Foundation,
the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation, the Chicago Foundation for Women.We also gratefully acknowledge the ongoing support
of the members of the Advisory Committee of the Women's Rights Division.

Appendix A: Yellow Travel Card Compulsory for Saudi Women

[Translated
by Human Rights Watch from the Arabic original]

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Ministry
of Interior

General
Directorate of Passports

Riyadh Region
Passport Office

(Saudi
Travel Permit)

Number: _____________________Date:____ / _____ / 142___ AH

Name of the Passport Holder:
_____________________________________________

I commit to not leave my educational institution before paying back all
my financial obligations.I also commit
to pay back any fees that would cause financial claims after my departure.I commit to provide the cultural attaché
office at least an annual report about the progression of my education.

Signature:

Certification applicable to students of Medicine

I acknowledge that I will take an exam upon my return with the degree
from the Saudi Committee of Medical Specialties, the results of which will
determine whether I will be authorized to practice.

I commit to consult the bylaws and the guidelines of the practice of
Medicine in Saudi Arabia
and abide by them.

Signature:

I, guardian of the [female] student ………………………………………………commit to accompanying her during her entire
schooling.

Name:Relationship:

Signature:

Appendix C: Surgical
Procedure Form Requiring a Guardian's Consent

[1]
According to the Basic Law of Governance (1992), Saudi Arabia's "constitution is the
Almighty God's Book, The Holy Quran, and the Sunna (Traditions) of the Prophet
(PBUH)." See Basic Law of Governance, Umm
al-Qura Newspaper (Mekka), issue 3397, March 6, 1992, art. 1.

[2] The "religious establishment" in Saudi Arabia
consists of clerics whom the government has officially appointed and employed
and individuals who belong to religious organizations that receive state
support.

[3]
This Commission (al-hisba) is an early institution of the Islamic state,
where, in Egypt,
for example, its powerful officials regulated weights, measures, and proper
dealings in the marketplace.

[4] The Council of Senior Religious Scholars is
headed by Grand Mufti Shaikh Abd al-'Aziz Al al-Shaikh who issues the official
interpretations of Islamic law in Saudi Arabia with the consent of
the King. For more information on
the Council and the role of religion in the kingdom, see Frank E. Vogel, Islamic
Law and Legal System: Studies of Saudi Arabia (Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2000).

[14]
Ahmad Atif Ahmad, "Women's Freedom and
limitations of Guardians' Authority: Based on the Sources of Hanbali Law and
Other Sources of Islamic Law," p. 15 (on file with Human Rights Watch).
This paper was commissioned by Human Rights Watch.

[15] Human Rights Watch interview with Dr. A.A.
al-Abdulhai, professor of political science at KingSaudUniversity
and member of the National Society for Human Rights, Riyadh, November 29, 2006.

[16]The HanbaliSchool
of jurisprudence is named after Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal. Its hallmark is to go
directly to the sources of legislation, the Quran and the Prophetic traditions
(Sunna), in an attempt to derive guidance to a legal problem, whereas
other schools of jurisprudence rely more on principles established by scholarly
consensus, even where there is little guidance from the Quran and the Sunna.

[24] The late King Faisal introduced girls'
education in Saudi Arabia
in the 1950s.

[25]UNESCO, "Adult illiteracy for population aged 15 and above, by country
and by gender 1970-2015," July 2002, http://www.uis.unesco.org/en/stats/statistics/literacy2000.htm (accessed February 21, 2007).

[26] In 2002 the government combined the General
Presidency for Girls' Education (overseen by the Department of Religious
Guidance) and the Ministry of Education. The latter has always overseen boys' education.

[28] UN Committee on the Rights of the Child,
"Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties under Article 44 of the
Convention, Concluding Observations, Saudi Arabia, U.N. Doc. CRC/C/15/Add.148,
February 21, 2001, para. 39 (a). Article 29(d)of the Convention on the Rights of the Child states that education
"shall be directed to the preparation of the child for responsible life in a
free society, in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of
sexes, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups
and persons of indigenous origin…." Saudi Arabia acceded to the
Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1996.

[36]
Tabitha Morgan, "Saudi
Arabia: More female graduates but no more
jobs," University World News, March 16, 2008,
http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20080314090309746
(accessed March 31, 2008).

[41] See "Saudi Arabia: Religious Police Role
in School Fire Criticized," Human Rights Watch news release, March 15, 2002,
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2002/03/15/saudia3801.htm. The fire was followed by
the merger of the General Presidency for Girls' Education (overseen by the
Department of Religious Guidance) and the Ministry of Education, mentioned
above.

[42] The United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) calculates gender empowerment by tracking the share of seats in
parliament held by women; the number of female legislators, senior officials,
managers, and professional and technical workers; and the gender disparity in
earned income. See UNDP, Human Development Report 2006 (New York: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2006), http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/statistics/countries/country_fact_sheets/cty_fs_SAU.html (accessed April 4, 2007).

[49] Article 4 of the Labor Code (Part I:
Definitions and General Provisions) reads, "When implementing the provisions of
this law, the employer and the worker shall adhere to the provisions of Sharia."

[53] See The Middle East Media Research
Institute, "Public Debate in Saudi Arabia on Employment Opportunities for
Women," Inquiry and Analysis Series - No. 300, November 17, 2006, http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=ia&ID=IA30006 (accessed February 5, 2007).

[55] Human Rights Watch interview with a
clinical psychologist, 2006 (location and date withheld). The physician pointed
out that his own workplace does not ask for the guardian to approve an
operation.

[56]Human Rights Watch interview with Dr. Ali
al-Qahtani, head of the General Directorate of Hospitals, Riyadh, March 12, 2008.

[65]
Individualsworking with victims of domestic violence told Human Rights
Watch that police frequently cited the lack of a guardian's permission to file
the complaint when refusingto intervene in cases of domestic violence.
Human Rights Watch interview with a clinical psychologist, Riyadh,
December 4, 2006;
and Human Rights Watch interview with a social worker, Riyadh, December 7, 2006.

[66]Human Rights Watch interview with a social
worker, Riyadh,
December 7, 2006.

[74]
Fu'ad Abd al-Mun'im Ahmad, On Criminal
Lawsuits in Islamic Jurisprudence (Riyadh:
Modern Arab Bureau, 2001), p. 177. In addition, the testimony of non-Muslims is
admissible only in cases of "necessity," especially while "traveling." Ibid.,
p.101. See also US Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices–2006: Saudi Arabia," March 6, 2007, http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78862.htm
(accessed November 13, 2007).

[75]
Human Rights Watch interview with a Saudi woman, Riyadh,
December 5, 2006;
and Human Rights Watch interview with a female member of the National Society
for Human Rights, Riyadh,
December 15, 2006.

[88]
See Appendix for a sample yellow card required for female travel outside the
kingdom.

[89]
According to Ministry of Interior guidelines, "Procedures to issue a passport
for a Saudi female are the same for Saudi males but the family guardian must be
present to approve on issuing the passport." See Ministry of Interior, General
Directorate of Passports, "Saudi Procedures," FAQ.
http://www.moi.gov.sa/wps/portal/passports/kcxml/04_Sj9SPykssy0xPLMnMz0vM0Y_QjzKLNzSMdwp2AclB2c76kRiiho6uWEVdkETD9aOQzItCMi8KyZQoJL1BqXn63vq-Hvm5qfoB-gW5oaERBpmeuo6OigDjSg41/delta/base64xml/L0lDU0lKQ1RPN29na21BISEvb0VvUUFBSVFnakZJQUFRaENFSVFqR0VBLzRKRmlDbzBlaDFpY29uUVZHaGQtc0lRIS83XzExX00zNC8y?WCM_PORTLET=PC_7_11_M34_WCM&WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/wps/wcm/connect/Passports/FAQs/(accessed September 15, 2007).

[92]
The Saudi Embassy in WashingtonDC's website states, "All ladies
are required to travel for Hajj with a Mahram. Proof of kinship must be
submitted with the application form. Any lady over the age of forty-five (45)
may travel without a Mahram with an organized group, provided she submits a
letter of no objection from her husband, son or brother authorizing her to
travel for Hajj with the named group. This letter should be notarized." See
"Hajj Requirements," http://www.saudiembassy.net/Travel/hajj.asp (accessed October 2, 2007).

[93]
The Saudi government has stated that "There is no legal provision banning women
from driving cars. However, this matter is the subject of study and requires
time for implementation." See Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women, Responses to the list of issues and questions
contained in document number CEDAW/C/SAU/Q/2, A.H. 1428 (A.D. 2007), UN Doc.
CEDAW/C/SAU/Q/2/Add.1 (2007), p. 5.

[97]Saudi
law has established no minimum age of marriage. Saudi Arabia's
submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child explained why: "With
regard to social status, the law does not define a specific minimum age for
marriage; the Islamic Shariah regulates discrepancies relating to capacity for
marriage and promotes marriage in a manner that ensures the happiness of both
spouses and averts the countless social dangers inherent in the deferment of
marriage.This flexibility of the
Islamic Shariah helps to satisfy the disparate needs of men and women and
serves the interests of both parties." See Government of Saudi Arabia, Second
Periodic Report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, CRC/C/136/Add.1, April 21, 2005, para. 37.

[98] Jamal J. Nasir, The Status of Women
under Islamic Law and Under Modern Islamic Legislation (London: Graham
& Trotman, 1990), p. 9

[106] Custody laws in Saudi Arabia favor men and are not
based on any determination of the best interest of the child. Judges do not
award custody to non-Saudi women or non-Muslims. As recently as March 2006 the
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed concern that the "general
principle of the best interests of the child contained in article 3 of the
Convention is not systematically included in laws, regulations and practices
concerning children, for example regarding the status of the child, the custody
decisions and in the area of alternative care." See UN Committee on the Rights of the Child,
"Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties under Article 44 of the
Convention, Concluding Observations, Saudi Arabia, U.N. Doc. CRC/C/SAU/CO/2, March 17, 2006, para. 30. See also Abdullahi An-Na'im, Islamic
Family Law in a Changing World (London:
Zed Books, 2002), p. 102.

[111] CEDAW , art.2. Saudi Arabia's accession to the
convention was formalized through the adoption of Royal Decree No. 25
of 28/5 [Concerning the kingdom's accession to the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women] on 28August2000.

[127] UN Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation No. 24, The Right to
Health, UN Doc. A/54/38/Rev.1 (1999), para. 14.

[128] The right to be free from torture and cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment is provided for in article 7 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), 999 UNT.S. 171,
entered into force March 23,
1976.

[132] Convention on the Rights of the Child
(CRC), adopted November 20,
1989, G.A. Res. 44/25, annex, 44 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 49) at 167,
U.N. Doc. A/44/49 (1989), entered into force September 2, 1990. Saudi Arabia acceded to the
convention on January 26,
1996. The Saudi government entered a general reservation upon
accession stating that "[The Government of Saudi Arabia enters] reservations
with respect to all such articles as are in conflict with the provisions of
Islamic law."

[133] UN Committee on the Rights of the Child,
"Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties under Article 44 of the
Convention, Concluding Observations, Saudi Arabia, U.N. Doc. CRC/C/15/Add.148,
February 21, 2001, para. 35.